Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) package and, more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing an LED package capable of discriminating (or distinguishing) between a functional product and a defective product by inspecting an operational state of an LED package.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, an LED has come to prominence as a light source of various purposes such as a light source of a backlight unit or for general lighting (or illumination). An LED is used in the form of a package by mounting a semiconductor-based LED chip on a substrate and applying a light-transmissive resin thereto. The light-transmissive resin used for the LED package may include a phosphor according to the desired color of output light to be implemented.
In a general LED package fabrication process, a die bonding process is performed in which an LED chip is mounted on a mounting area of a package main body or a package substrate and fixed thereto, and then, a wire bonding process for connecting electrodes is performed to mount the LED chip on the package main body or the package substrate. In this case, a plurality of LED chips may be set in an array on a plurality of mounting areas of the package main body. Thereafter, a light-transmissive resin (e.g., a silicon resin including phosphors, or the like) is dispensed to the LED package and then cured (or hardened). After the light-transmissive resin is hardened, a singulation process or a lead frame trimming or forming process is performed. Thereafter, the LED package is completely separated as an individual package is tested or inspected.
In the foregoing processes, when the bonding is not properly performed in the wire bonding operation, the contact between an electrode pad and a wire of the LED chip or the contact between a stitch and the wire of the substrate (sub-mount, or the like) may be defective. With such a defective contact, the LED package may be normally operated at room temperature, but an open or short phenomenon may occur in the connection means, such as wire bonding or the like at a high temperature, causing the product to be defective. In particular, when the LED package enters a high temperature state due to heat generated by the continuous use of the LED package, the problem caused by the defective contact greatly affects the reliability of the product.
In order to check the open or short state of the LED package, or whether or not the LED package is lighted (or turned on), a process of testing the manufactured LED package is performed. The LED package testing process is performed on each of the LED packages which have been separated as individual packages through the trimming and forming process as described above. Thus, a great deal of time is required to test the mass-produced LED packages, lowering the testing efficiency.